WWE officials have high hopes for Jey Uso on the RAW brand.
Just weeks after he “quit” SmackDown and WWE altogether during The Bloodline’s ongoing drama on Friday nights, Uso returned this past Saturday at WWE Payback, as an official member of the RAW roster. The storyline is that Cody Rhodes saw a wrong he felt like he needed to right while watching SmackDown, so he used all the political stroke he has to get Jey hired on the RAW brand. Uso came out to a big babyface pop and ended up shutting down The Grayson Waller Effect by superkicking the host while Rhodes looked on from the stage, apparently in approval but a bit concerned as before the introduction he said he hoped he would not regret the decision.
In an update, a report from Fightful notes that WWE officials have been hopeful that Jey can break through as a singles star, and without The Bloodline’s storyline.
WWE put effort into keeping Jey’s roster change a secret. While it was reported on Saturday afternoon that Jey was backstage at the PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh, his name was kept off internal run sheets that listed the Payback matches and segments for the night. The segment with Uso, Rhodes and Waller was produced by Shawn Daivari.
There’s no word yet on what this means for the planned Uso vs. Uso match. Jimmy Uso continued his storyline with Solo Sikoa and Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns on Friday’s go-home SmackDown. Jimmy vs. Jey was rumored for Payback at one point, perhaps with WWE Hall of Famer Rikishi as the special referee, but some within WWE felt like Payback was too soon for their first match. There was also talk that some wanted to save the match for WrestleMania 40, but there was the argument that April is too long to wait. It was believed that WWE would surely get multiple matches from the brother vs. brother feud, so it will be interesting to see if they have dropped that part of the program by moving Jey to RAW.
Besides the angles with Sikoa and AJ Styles on Friday’s SmackDown, Jimmy also worked with the returning John Cena. Jimmy interrupted Cena’s in-ring promo and explained why he made Jey lose at SummerSlam – he was saving his brother because he loves him, and would do it again and again, but he also did not want Jey to win and become corrupt like Cena or Reigns. Jimmy ended up trying to superkick Cena but it was blocked and Jimmy was laid out with the Attitude Adjustment.
The original plan for Uso and Cena on SmackDown was to have Cena interrupt a promo by Uso, not the other way around. WWE had previously announced that Jimmy would speak for the first time since Jey “quit” and that’s the promo Cena was to interrupt to kick off his return.
On a related note, Cena mentioned during his SmackDown promo how he didn’t learn of the Payback hosting gig until he was backstage in the Gorilla Position preparing to come out to the ring. It was reported last Thursday that Cena likely would be the host of Payback. Word now is that WWE really did come up with the idea “very recently,” and that Cena was not told until Friday.
There’s been no update on the rumors of WWE doing Cena vs. Rhodes while Cena is back for this short run. It also remains to be seen if Cena will appear at WWE Fastlane on Saturday, October 7 in Indianapolis, as WWE has discussed. A Fastlane match or appearance would make sense as he is booked for the Fastlane go-home SmackDown on October 6 in St. Louis, and the post-Fastlane Sm